This invention relates to mining equipment in general and, in particular, to a new and useful mechanism for guiding a coal planer on the trough of a conveyor, particularly a scraper chain conveyor, which utilizes vertically and horizontally extending tracks engaged by vertical and horizontal rollers in a guide claw connected to the planer.
Coal planers are utilized to plane coal from a mine face by drawing cutting blades across the mine face which are carried by the planer. The coal is deposited onto the trough of a scraper chain conveyor which moves the coal.
In planer assemblies with a coal planer guided on the conveyor trough, the planer body slides on both the planer guide and the floor. The sliding friction causes considerable frictional losses and drag forces, so that only a limited amount of the applied power is utilized for the winning or planing and loading operation. Consequently, the traveling speed of the planer and the cutting depth must be reduced correspondingly. An output increase, however, requires higher speeds and cutting depths. Therefore, either the power supply must be increased or the frictional losses must be reduced. The present invention concentrates on the latter solution.